Actuarial Science Movie Reviews

Fans of fifties creature features should enjoy this smarmy swamp saga about vampirish predators that keep captives in caves to suffer lingering, sucked-dry deaths. The monsters are fearsomely fun, the hero hairy-chested and handsome, the leading lady clingy and lovely, and the leading non-lady cleavaged and vampily luscious. The scripting is tolerably sensible, and the acting and direction are above average for this sort of cinema. In its day, this movie's gruesome mutants and waterborne dead bodies would have seemed more grisly than gleeful. But today, both adjectives can be applied in abundance!

Yvette Vickers and her tube of lotion make this a must-have.

It is silly and incredibly tacky but this is a truly fun 50s drive in flick. A beautiful damsel , silly music, terrible acting and very silly montsters ... but if y ou like campy movies, don't miss this!! No true violence or foul language, it is safe fun for everyone! Keep the lights on, tho there are some genuinely scary parts if you let yourself get into it! For fans of drive in movies only. Great fun!

If these women would have been Asian or dark, dark black women then this would have been a more exciting video to watch. Because of its lack of ebonic pleasure, it doesn't provide all the necessary elements for a successful flashing film. Like the naked yoga movie, its missing these important factors: no Asian or really dark black women and old people. Old women are the key elements to porn movies. How can you enjoy watching two women getting hot and heavy in their room, without one of those women being at least a minimum of 65? That's totally impossible. But for what this film is supposed to be, it does an all right job of doing it. 'Naked in America' is all about the white, which is also what America is all about anyway. But soon...an Asian invasion WILL occur, my friends. You can count it.

This was just OK. Lots of beside the highway type shots with only a couple of interesting scenarios. There is just so much you could do with this idea I was somewhat underwelmed with the producers lack of imagination.

I liked the "Naked in America" part better. I liked Stevie the best out of all the ladies. "Scarlet" the red head, was the lamest girl on the freakin' DVD! But It was ok. the picture was a little messed up, due to the VHS to DVD transfer. But I liked it!

Let me sum up this "movie" - (...) It is borderline fraud to call this a movie. One of the reviews here mentioned the $100 budget... if they spent that much I'd be suprised. Anyone could film this in their garage with a bunch of their friends, which is exactly what this is. Bad story, bad acting, and bad visual effects and props... to recrate them all you'll need is some empty cardboard boxes and that (stuff)you'd find on a low budget flea market table. The only possitive thing I can say about this is that I didn't pay fot it (unfortunately I was duped into thinking it was a quality parady and put it on my wish list and got it as a gift).

As an official Trekkie and member of many Star Trek clubs and groups, all of my crew consider this to be one of the funniest parodies. Granted it is very cheap, that is the point. Star Wars fans beware, the F/X are terrrible. Again, that is the point. Whoever you are who made this, we love it in the SF chapter of the Star Trek Afficianado group! And we heard there is a sequel! Let us know if you need another $100 for the budget!

There are some people who just DON'T LIKE this movie... listen, it's CHEAP! You 'll not find Harrison Ford in it! But it IS one of the funniest parodies EVER made! Just because something cost almost nohting to make, doesn't make it a BAD movie. In fact, take a look at the DVD cover. IT A SPACE SHIP MADE OUT OF BEER CANS AND STUFF! What you see is what you get! I love it, and so will you. And check out the sequel too!

According to some, Killers From Space is a great example of a bad movie so bad that it is good; some would even grant it B movie cult status. I take more of a middle ground because, to me, the movie isn't really that bad. Sure, it has some silly aspects to it, but it's a lot more enjoyable than many a 1950s science fiction thriller you can find out there in the wild. Admittedly, the prominence of Peter Graves also helps because I can't help but think of him as a legitimate actor despite a good bit of evidence to the contrary.

As for the plot, it all starts on a bright and shiny day when all kinds of folks have come together to watch the detonation of an atomic bomb - don't worry, they are all wearing goggles, so I'm sure they are in no danger whatsoever; as we all learned on Mystery Science Theater 3000, radiation can only hurt you if you touch it. Anyway, Dr. Douglas Martin (Peter Graves) is flying around above the explosion taking readings when his pilot spots a glowing object below and commences to take the plan into a vertical dive toward the earth. There is no sign of Martin's body in the wreckage, but no one could have survived the crash. Then, shortly thereafter, who should come wandering up to the gate of the local military base but Dr. Martin himself. He comes home with no memory of what happened, but he does have a shiny new surgical scar covering the left upper side of his chest. He soon begins acting strangely, and ultimately he gets nabbed hiding some secret information about the next atomic test under a rock in the desert. In with the truth serum, and out comes a story of aliens with hard-boiled eggs for eyes breeding a zoo of genetically mutated super-sized critters. He insists that the future of the planet is in grave peril, but no one believes him. Thus, as is always the case, it's up to Peter Graves to save the world single-handedly (and, as luck would have it, the aliens were stupid enough to pretty much tell him how to destroy them).

Some individuals have posited that this film helped create a template for future alien abduction accounts. This idea is pure rubbish, in my opinion. Sure, the aliens have huge eyes that seem to haunt Martin, but no E.T. ever looked as stupid as these guys; Martin also wakes up on a table surrounded by aliens performing some kind of medical procedure on him, but the scenes in this movie are by and large pretty laughable. Besides the aliens, the other thing this movie is known for is its whole giant insect montage. When Martin tries to escape from the aliens, he winds up running around in their menagerie - in other words, he runs back and forth between some projection screens showing extreme close-ups of spiders, lizards, and other creepy-crawlies. This scene would have been fairly effective had the director shown any restraint, but these shots just continue for far too long. If you've seen Peter Graves in The Beginning of the End, you will feel quite at home here. In the final analysis, Killers From Space is obviously not a great movie, but I personally don't think it is quite bad enough to be considered a full-fledged "bad movie."

No big bug collection is complete without "Killers From Space." It might not have the statue of "Them!"." But the formula is there. It starts off with the narration to describe what you see. Then goes quickly into the mystery. The only thing missing is a flame thrower.
Dr Douglas Marvin (Peter Graves) while at an atomic test sees something suspicious on the ground. When the pilot takes his plane closer the controls jam. The plane crashed and the pilot is burnt to a crisp. Dr. Marvin mysteriously shows up later with a scar on his chest and no memory. Where could he have been? And is it important? Only time will tell. If we have time left with Killers form space.

Killers From Space is everything you want in a B-movie about Aliens taking over the world. Peter Graves plays Dr. Douglas Martin, a nuclear scientist who is surveying a piece of land where an A-Bomb is tested. This begins a strange journey that leads him to believe that aliens are using our atomic energy to support themselves so they can unleash a deadly herd of giant insects that will devour all humans on the earth. It is one of my all time favorite B-Movies. A must see!!!

When I first heard that this title was coming out on DVD I was rather excited because I had only ever seen the film on VHS in a pan and scan format. I remember liking the movie and looked forward to the day when it would come out on DVD because I assumed it would be released in widescreen format. Much to my dismay the DVD version is another pan and scan transfer. Here was an opportunity to release the title with it's original Panavision, 2.35:1 aspect ratio but for some odd reason the distributors bypassed this option in favor of the old VHS pan and scan format. The movie is fun but far from a great film. But if a widescreen version was available I would definitely buy it. But a new DVD version in pan and scan seems like a waste of time to me. So I'll just pass on this one and hold on to my old VHS copy.

Oh man, where do I start? Most reviews of this movie seem to range from love to hate, with very few between. I think I fall in the 'between' area. Moon 44 was directed by Roland Emmerich, who also directed Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independance day, The Patriot, and Godzilla. Oh yeah, he also produced and wrote Moon 44. One of the stars in the movie, Dean Devlin, also produced Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla with Emmerich.

The movie starts off by telling us it's the future, and all Earth's resources have been depleted, so companies have taken to space to exploit moons for their mineral resources. Competition for these moons is pretty fierce, as the material recovered from these moons is very valuable, and can make or break a company. One company has seen numerous moons hit, shuttles lost, and their profits gone, so when their last moon is threatened by what appears to a conspirator inside the company, the board of directors send an investigator to determine the truth, played by b-movie veteran Michael Paré.

He goes undercover, as a one of a group of prisoners who have flight experience as pilots are hard to come by. Apparently it's going to be these guys job to protect the moon and the robotic equipment from raiders by flying around in modified helicopters. Since the terrain they will be flying in is difficult, each pilot must work closely with a navigator, who is situated within the station, giving specific directions to the pilot. One wrong move could mean death. The navigators are the typical computer nerdy bunch, and don't mix well with the harden prisoners when they show up. One prisoner decides to rape his navigator in the shower, and though we don't get to see it, I thought it was a pretty bad idea of the prisoner to do such a thing since the navigator would surely want revenge of some sort.

So we have the problems between the navigators, the hard nosed drill instructor busting the prisoner/pilots chops (especially Felix Stone, played by Michael Paré), and the slimy head of the station, Major Lee, played by Malcolm McDowell, another actor who spends an awful lot of time in b-movie hell. (Check out the IMdB and you'll see what I mean.) The whistleblower, a navigator called Tyler, played by Devlin, gives Stone what he has and together they determine that the mysterious disappearance of the shuttles is really not that they got lost, but were misdirected by someone inside the organization.

There's some running around, some scenes that were supposed to build tension, etc., and we start to find out the truth in what's going on, the motive behind the theft of the shuttle.

My biggest problem with this movie is that it seemed like too many threads of story line were dangled before us, much more than could be adequately resolved within the 98 minute running time of the movie. The major stuff was resolved, but the movie got bogged down in character development for characters that were not important to the main story. I mean really, who cares why the one navigator spiked some pilot's lunch with drugs? As a result, Malcolm McDowell and Michael Paré didn't get as many lines or as much screen time as they should have. The effects and sets are decent enough for this kind of movie, although they kept showing us scenes of a giant earthmoving device and I don't know why? To establish something, I guess...and why do all mining bases/station of operations have to be so funky looking in these movies? It's not that they're dirty, but just a lot of metal grated flooring, pipes and what not on the walls and ceiling, and extremely poor lighting. Maybe it's a written rule somewhere.

I think this could have been a better movie had it focused more on the main plot, and not presented all these secondary plots, spending a lot of time dealing with them, and basically going nowhere. And I was disappointed in the pan and scan full screen format. When will they learn? Why not put both formats on the disc, and let the viewer choose? And don't look for any extras, not even a trailer or case insert with chapter stops. Nada, nil, none...seeing as how this director went on to bigger (but not necessarily better) things, I would have thought he would have been interested in providing some insight to us about this movie through a commentary. Oh well...A so so movie with an exceptionally poor release.

A murder mystery on a bleak station in outer space staffed by people who could not find a better berth and a group of convicts who could not get a better deal. Two young nerds who play a pivotal role but are ignored by everyone, except by the convicts during an unnervingly well-acted shower scene.

Tyler, played by Dean Devlin, is a truly witty and likeable nerd, and his buddy, Cookie, played by Stephen Geoffreys, has cornered the black market on board and is happy. Until the plug-uglies show up. Michael Pare is among them, charged with discovering who is stealing company property.

Intrigue, violence and discovery unfold in this desolation and the ending is not entirely predictable.

Grim, but with moments of bright humor, this movie left me wondering why I had never heard of it before.

[...].

Mind you, I love bad movies. Ed Wood and Phil Tucker are among my favorites. And I have a few others in my libary which I applaud as they have $2.68 special effects budgets that make them worth watching. (And some are made by those who later became big!)

But, as far as budget, yeah, this one's low. As far as humor, the funniest thing about the story was the fact that at the fire dept. dance or whatever it was, all the dishes on the buffet table were a variation on the theme of lime jello. The rest of the humor consisted of silly, over-used cliches.

If you want to see this one once, okay. I doubt you'll want to see it again.

All right. It's more enjoyable than "Battlefield Earth." That in itself says....something.

There are many people who feel a spoof should be at the level of Airplane, non-stop gags loosely tied into a theme. There are less smash-on-the-head spoofs such as many of the films of Mel Brooks. This one is somewhere in between.

The town of Exceptional Vista used to be a major manufacturer of machine nuts. But now the factory is closed and the town is dried up. Everyone who could leave already has.

But then some interesting things happen. Something falls from the sky and lands near the town, a world famous nuclear scientist arrives for a vacation, all television reception is out, and there seem to be a lot of traveling salesmen about.

The aliens have landed and it is up to an unusual cast of characters to save the day. The movie then follows a rather typical 1950's B-movie theme, complete with the aliens being defeated with a simple weapon.

Things heat up when the first body is found "in the lumpy bumpy part of town outside of town." Yes, that phrase is actually used. Repeatedly. Much of the humor is subtle. Pay attention to the dialogue (particularly that of the scientist) and the background visuals. Watching our heroes being scared to pass through a bead curtain is just one instance.

This is a good spoof, but not one that will appeal to most spoof fans. It is a little to subtle for most although I quite enjoyed it...

Avalanche Video deliberately retitled this film and designed the packaging to fool people into thinking it's a Zucker Brothers style non-stop gag fest like Airplane! or Top Secret. Rather, Top of the Food Chain (the movie's real title, which still appears on the film itself) is an eccentric, amusing exercise in absurdity. As such, it's not for everybody, but who wants to see movies that ARE for everybody? (I know, plenty of people.) The director, John Paizs, is an associate of Guy Maddin, so if you like Maddin's films, you may like this. Not that this is at all like Tales From the Gimli Hospital or Careful, but those open to intelligent, offbeat movies will probably enjoy it. The rest of you are free to rent Scary Movie, he said, cinema snob that he is.

Another one in a series of lame, cheap movies from Producers Network Associates (PNA) -- Greystone International -- Danforth Studios -- or whatever the heck they're calling themselves nowadays. "The Deadly Wake" is a deadly bore that stars Michael Pare. In fact Michael Pare seems to star in all the films of these guys and this has had the overall effect of ruining the actor's once promising career.

Here's what you can expect from this movie if you're foolish enough to actually rent or buy it: cheap sets, low-grade script, horrible acting, and special effects which look as though they were put together by a mogoloid monkey. There's absolutely nothing to recommend here, so much so that I'm surprised the "film" even managed to get made. Who on Earth was foolish enough to hand these guys money to make it?

Do yourself a favor and watch static on your TV, you'll get a heck of a lot more enjoyment out of it.

Malcolm McDowel is great in this gutsy small picture with big ideas. Cora Fell (Hidie Von Palleske) tells a haunted mythical tale that links us to times past of pirates and ghost ships, but this is the future and its even darker. In a world where the sky burns orange under global warming even the ocean seems a desert, the ship is navigated by an ugly-cute neural-implanted 90 yr old "baby" in some cyber-knetic fluid. Everyone on this ship is mad, like nuts, some just show it earlier than later.

Michael Pare plays it nicely (he's the bad guy and McDowell the good guy), in fact they all play it straight. I'm sure the filmmakers (the team of Daniel D'or and G. Phillip Jackson, I think they're the same folks who are doing TV's Starhunter) know they are working with low cash, you can see them wink at the audience, but instead of all being toung-in-cheek, they don't cop out, they have fun with the film. Mackenzie Gray is also convincing as a nutso first mate, an explosives expert with a bad case of the nerves.

I for one also really liked Gweneth Walsh (Star Trek -where she also confronted McDowell), she's the sexy manipulator without being typically overt about it, except she was overt about looking like she was having fun.

Very nice cybernetic killing machine the ultimate fem-tek fatale I say. I'd like to see this picture with a bigger budget and tighter editing. Good movie overall.

This is a good surprise, its a strange l'l movie, but kept me entertained and intriugued. So it looks like it didn't have the most money in the world, but it kept the surprises coming and a unique SF feel. McDowel is good, Michael Pare is different (A bad guy) and that's OK Gweneth Walsh has fun with her bits. If the regular SF stuff that looks all the same and tells the same story bores you, you'l probably really like this.

The female Killer Cyborg that moves like a dancer is a neat invention.

This is a pretty corny movie from the late 70's. A space ship crash lands on a planet that ends up having dinasaurs on it! Of course the plot is pretty dumb, and the special effects are stop motion (clay-mation), plus the acting is typical of low budget sci-fi of the era, and the diolouge and is cheesy. Pretty muc hthe whole movie is cheesy. And that's what makes it enjoyable.

By all accounts the special effects actually aren't all that bad. Little kids will probably like this movie and if you liked the older godzillas, Gorgo, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Them, or any of the other nostalgic sci-fi adventures, then you wqill probably like this. If you're looking for a movie you can take 100% seriously in the year 2003, then forget it.

It's worth noting that the DVD is only MONO, but with a movie like this you aren't going to get a "remastered" version. The sound shows it's age, and more so the picture quality on the DVD version shows specks here and there. This is disapointing, but atleast it's full screen so we don't have to stare at black bars. I only wish they had cleaned up the sound and picture a bit. But hell, for less than 5 buck what do you expect!

Sometimes production companies try to make a b-movie, and it's no secret that it's supposed to be funny. Those moves are lame. Planet of the Dinosaurs, however, is AWESOME. Each line of the horrible dialog is delivered with all the intensity of a Knight Rider-era Hasselhoff. You actually get the impression that they were trying to make a decent movie, and that makes it even more hilarious. I first saw this on tv when I was a kid. I was excited to see that it was out on DVD! The dinosaurs are most likely totally innacurate and out of scale if you asked a paleontolgist, but see, these are SPACE dinosaurs! ROCK! The best part is the plot. They crash, some of them die, and then they never find a way off the planet! It just ends with a scene of them washing their clothes in a pond! Their space suits are rad, and the dude's beard is sweet! Easily worth 5 stars.

this is my all-time favorite movie. the acting is so awful, and the dialogue is too funny. the soundtrack is awesome. i love the sexy jumpsuits. dont watch this movie if youre looking for some serious jurassic park-style dinosaur movie. you'll be missing the point. this movie is totally hilarious. i love it!!

Devil Girl from Mars, an early effort of Harry and Edward Danziger, producers of dozens of British potboilers throughout the 50s and 60s, is one of those movies that inhabits that netherworld of not-really-good-enough-to-be-good-not-really-bad-enough-to-be-good. While the title and advertising materials promise a super-campy yuk-fest a la Queen of Outer Space, Catwomen of the Moon, etc., the movie really only delivers a mildy diverting, highly derivative tale of a butchy femalien (Nyah) and her clunky robot. At times stealing shamelessy from The Day the Earth Stood Still (to one-tenth the effect), the script consists mostly of lots of Earthbound dramatic and romantic subplots. Die-hards may find some faint amusement in the Devil Girl's imperious, slightly bitchy manner, her ungainly robot's all-too-brief appearances, and the vaguely Monty Pythonish reactions of the Scottish townsfolk to their cosmic visitors. Also on the plus side: Nyah's dominatrix-like leather/vinyl costume; the cool 50s-deco-look spaceship and robot; OK, if limited, special effects, and the absolutely radiant Hazel Court. What she's doing romancing that schmuck Hugh McDermott is a complete mystery. I really wanted to like this movie more, but honestly it's pretty dry overall. Unless you're already attuned to English 1950s SF you're likely to find this a bit on the dull side, and Quatermass fans, etc. will probably find it rather dumb as well. Ultimately, Devil Girl remains a passable time-waster for bad movie aficionados, but just not as much fun as it should be. They should have put Hazel Court in that leather suit and had HER be mean and bitchy!
The good news is that at least the DVD is worthy. There is some occasional light speckling (a little worse toward the beginning of the movie), but otherwise the source print is quite presentable, with little to no visible damage, good tonal values, sharpness, and detail. An OK if somewhat scratchy trailer and chapter stops are included. If you already love the movie, or are a Hazel Court fan or 50s completist, it's a pretty solid buy; the only-curious may want to see it first (somehow) before purchasing.

A few years ago I stumbled across this gem on VHS -- what a delight! It does get off to a slow start (okay, it's pretty slow all the way through) but oh, my friends, when the devil girl arrives in her black leatherette costume, preening and bragging about her advanced civilization, and reveals her refrigerator-box robot! And all done so earnestly! A masterpiece of unintentional comedy.

I saw in the opening credits that this screenplay was originally a play. keeping that in mind i watched the movie thinking "now how did they do this scene on stage?" This attitude helped keep me amused.
Perhaps because it once was a play, the characters spoke like people in a play--a lot more clever than in real-life.
The premise of the story gets lost at times. Like when the "devil girl" marched the hero off to her ship I was saying to myself--"He's going to Mars to impregnate thousands of Martian women--tall statuesque women in black leather So what's the problem?"

I saw this DVD on the shelf and thought "...wow, sci-fi...and look at the credits." Then I saw the actors...Charlton Heston, Tim Matheson...and the plot seemed somewhat plausible...for the future anyway, so I bought it. Then I watched it the first time, then a second, and a third. I came to the conclusion that this movie was composed entirely of what was on the cutting room floor. The plot was disjointed, the most of the characters were uninspired and unbelievable (especially Matheson who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag), and despite the great special effects (2001 was touted as a credit to the sfx crew) this turkey of a movie couldn't get off the ground...much less to the sun. I give it one because, as they say; 'zero wasn't an option'. If you buy it, play the sound track to 'Event Horizon'...it makes it so much more interesting.

Obviously this is not a great piece of work, the Japanese producers wanted to make an American Science Fiction movie, they just didn't know how. All of the elements are present, they just didn't blend correctly. It is however one of those movies you can't resist stopping and watching when you are channel surfing. It may not be worth the 90 minutes you lose, but if you don't have anything better to do with them then you will enjoy this movie. It is a must however for anyone who wants to make movies. It had everything going for it and it failed.

I can see where some people say the FTL ending and Freddie The Bomb were influenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nevertheless, the film had some good points to it. Charlton Heston did a remarkable job, as did Jack Palance, British actress Annabelle Scholfield, and some of the other actors. The character played by Tim Matheson could have been played by someone else though. Nevertheless, the Japanese filmmakers of this picture did a good job. Even the special effects and musical score by Maurice Jarre was good, too. Overall, not a bad picture. It could have been better.